


if i had a voice (i would sing)

by Khapsized



Category: Vikings (TV)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-18
Updated: 2013-03-18
Packaged: 2017-12-05 17:39:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/726016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khapsized/pseuds/Khapsized
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lagertha goes in the water up to her knees, her dirty skirt floating around her and translucent like the pale purple ox-liver canteens they drink from, breasts bare, while Athelstan stays planted firmly on the ground at Ragnar’s feet. (Where he will stay, until Lagertha comes, wet and sodden like a mischievous  nymph, to throw him in.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	if i had a voice (i would sing)

**Author's Note:**

> For combeferresque over at tumblr who prompted with "Lagertha/Athelstan/Ragnar, at the beach!" Title from (surprise) If I Had A Heart by Fever Ray.

Because it’s in their blood, and they owe most of their livelihood to it, they end up at the shore one day with their toes (and in Athelstan’s case, hands) buried in the sand.

Lagertha goes in the water up to her knees, her dirty skirt floating around her and translucent like the pale purple ox-liver canteens they drink from, breasts bare, while Athelstan stays planted firmly on the ground at Ragnar’s feet. (Where he will stay, until Lagertha comes, wet and sodden like a mischievous nymph, to throw him in.)

He’s tried budging him, it was, after all, his idea that they take a day off from working the garden before summer faded into winter, but Athelstan had just twisted his mouth, grim, and stayed where he was tilling the sand with deft fingers.

When the waves start breaking lighter, Lagertha wades out from the water and drags Athelstan to his feet. Despite his wide eyes and pleas, she shoves him into the water until his tunic is dark with water and rimmed with salt and clinging sand.

He looks so startled that Ragnar can’t help but laugh, clapping a hand over his mouth to muffle himself, and Athelstan’s head turns, eyes deer sharp, to him like a flower following sun.

Lagertha beckons to him with one hand, curling her fingers and grinning; the other remains tucked firmly inside Athelstan’s.

He goes to them, bumps his knuckles against Athelstan’s, and lets the water lap around his calves. He’s a clear head taller than the young priest, the one that’s suddenly managed to work his way into their hearts and beds, seemingly without intending to.

Athelstan looks up at him, something easing in his dark eyes, and hooks his pinky around Ragnar’s, and quietly squeezes Lagertha’s hand.

“It’s very warm, the water,” Athelstan says, in their dialect, and Ragnar reaches into the next wave as subtly as he can (which isn’t much, he’s not built for stealth) and splashes Athelstan until he’s sputtering indignantly, eyebrows furrowed, and Lagertha is bent over laughing.

Athelstan, face clearing very slowly like a breaking storm, kicks water at him, and grins toothily.

They stay in the water until Athelstan starts looking confusedly down at his pruning fingers, and they take turns warming up his hands, finally just letting him bury them in the sand in the way he’s suddenly become so enamored doing.

It reminds him of the little meaty bugs that leap from the waves and sometimes nipped at his heels when he was a young child, not older than Bjorn, and he teaches Athelstan how to dig for them. Athelstan digs deft fingers into their tunnels and pries them out like little jewels, squirming in his palms.

Lagertha’s face tells him he isn’t disguising his fondness as well as he’d hoped. (But she covered her mouth with her hands earlier, smiling so hard her eyes crinkled, when she found Athelstan sitting on their bed with Ragnar between his knees getting his hair braided, Athelstan's plaits clumsy but well intended.)

“Come, little bug, let’s go home and get dry, yes?” Lagertha says, tugging them Athelstan up from his knees.

He smiles up at them as he rises.


End file.
